Fire District working to obtain a fire safety smoke house

March 22, 2013

The Cardinal Joint Fire District takes fire safety and education seriously and fire personnel realize the importance of teaching how to get out of a burning building. One tool the district is looking at buying is an inflatable smoke house.

The old smoke trailers can be frightening to some young children," said CJFD Deputy Chief Matt Rarick. "This inflatable smoke house resembles a bounce-around and will make learning fire safety a little more fun."

The fsmoke house is the newest fire safety training product from Inflatable Images. It costs $10,000 and comes with a front and rear door and two windows that children can learn how to escape when it is filled with non-toxic smoke. The house can be used to teach adults as well.

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Photo by J.T. Whitehouse, Town CrierCanfield Rotarians John Morvay and Marie Cartwright hand Cardinal Joint Fire District Deputy Chief Matt Rarick a check for $1,000 to go toward purchasing a new educational tool for fire safety.

"It's a teaching tool for all ages," said John Morvay, a Canfield Rotary member, city councilman and a member of the CJFD board of directors.

He said the inflatable house can be customized to teach electrical and cooking safety, escape routes, and any other fire safety lessons. What makes this different from the safety trailers that do similar education is where it can be used.

"Unlike trailers, this can be set up in a school gym or church hall to teach how to escape in a smoke-filled house," said CJFD Chief Don Hutchison. "The whole idea is to teach people to crawl under the smoke. Get down. Get low. Crawl out."

He said since it can be used indoors, it could be used year round, where trailers are mostly used in spring and summer outside events for training.

While the advantages of the inflatable are obvious, the next step is to get sponsors for it. Hutchison and Rarick have set up levels for contributors whose name will go on the side of the inflatable along with the CJFD logo. Those contributing $1,000 and up will be at the fire chief level. Over $500 will be deputy chief, over $250 will be captain and over $100 will be designated lieutenants. Under $100 will be listed as firefighters.

"We voted at Rotary to donate the first $1,000 towards its purchase," said Marie Cartwright who is also a Canfield Rotary member, CJFD board member and serves as Canfield Township trustee. "This will impact a lot of people at different age groups, and can be used at any event including the Canfield Fair."

She said Canfield Rotary would like to challenge other local service clubs to match their donation and help raise the funds to buy the training tool.

"We would like to have it in time for this year's Fourth of July," Cartwright said.

For information on donating towards the inflatable smoke house, call Rarick at the CJFD main station at 330-533-4316, ext. 3, or mail a donation to CJFD, 104 Lisbon St., Canfield, Ohio, 44406.